After a diverse career path including stints as a personal trainer and freelance writer, Lauren Shirreffs was inspired to dive headfirst into a new line of work. In 2013, she launched a social media agency from her kitchen table. Now, the CEO of 2Social leads a team of digital storytellers, overseas offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, and has worked with over 200 North American start-ups and established brands across a wide range of industries—from cannabis to real estate to food.

Here, Lauren walks us through her career path, offers her tips on building a strong social media presence, and gives advice on the sometimes-daunting prospect of making a big career change.

How did you get to where you are today?

Originally, I studied Fitness and Health. Upon graduation, I worked for various gyms around the city and had my own side hustle training clients at their work or home. At 25 years old, I decided to go back to school and pursue a more creative career that would allow for continued variety and scale. I studied Fashion Marketing at the Academy of Design (formally, The International Academy of Design) and had a keen interest in writing. I then briefly moved abroad and studied creative writing in London, England. During this time, I blogged and began freelance writing for a variety of publications, using the emerging social platforms as tools to increase my readership and develop my personal brand. Upon returning to Toronto, I began exploring the use of social media as a medium to connect local businesses with desired consumers and quickly grew this from an interest into a viable business and started 2Social in 2013.

Tell us about 2Social! What is it and what inspired you to found it?

2Social is a women-led creative and digital agency that delivers full-service marketing solutions to a growing roster of brands and businesses. We are a company of brand nurturers, digital storytellers, and passionate problem-solvers.

I’ve always been passionate about helping people, which likely stems from my time as a personal trainer. I’m also inspired by helping businesses reach new heights, and the creativity that social media allows in communicating messages. My goal has always been to create a space for free thinking and creative ideas with a team that is curated to deliver exceptional work for clients and have a similar passion to help others. We are good people focused on delivering great work for awesome people. We aren’t the agency that will take on any project; instead, like our curated culture and team environment, we focus on developing partnerships with our clients that are rooted in similar values.

How has 2Social evolved since you launched?

In 2013, I founded 2Social from the kitchen table in my creaky loft. In the early days, it was just me and my cat, and sometimes an intern, working on anywhere between 15-25 clients at a time. I founded 2Social with the ambition to develop a creative team cross-trained with a variety of experience and backgrounds to add to our services and expand 2Social into the agency it is today. We’re an agency with social media and digital still its core but have layered in the other crucial aspects to a client’s marketing mix—from design to PR to event marketing and analytics—that may add value to their digital footprint.

To support our growth and cement our US and international expansion, we opened our satellite office in Santa Monica, California, in 2016. This addition has allowed us to establish the agency as a bi-costal hub for creative digital solutions and keep us at the forefront of social media innovation. We continue to evolve and be agile to emerging trends, innovations, and platforms relevant to our clients, their customers, and the ever-changing digital landscape.

What sort of clients do you guys work with?

To date, we’ve worked with over 200 business and brands in both the US and Canada in a variety of celebrated industries. From beauty, fashion, retail and food and beverage to B2B, Pharma, cannabis, and real estate, our experience is well-versed and broad, and we aim to develop partnerships with our clients based on passion, culture, values and a shared ambition for success.

I feel like social media evolves so quickly that it would be hard to keep up with new trends, platforms, etc. How do you keep up?

We host monthly workshops, “Bites & Brainstorms,” where internal team members or industry professionals host a discussion on trends, technologies or various topics with the goal of continuous learning and professional growth. We often attend relevant industry events to stay abreast of newness in our field, and often take part in continuing education courses to evolve, grow, and stay on top of the ever-changing online ecosystem. Personally, I am taking masterclasses quarterly, listening to current podcasts, and reading relevant articles—and just generally testing out all new platforms or researching their capabilities to determine their whether they should be consider